Chromochloris zofingiensis (Czo)

[Photo from Göttingen University Culture Collection of Algae – Göttingen, Germany]

Chromochloris zofingiensis (AlgaeBase) is a simple 4-µm, unicellular, haploid, coccoid alga containing multiple mitochondria, which are visualized typically as a tubular network, and a single interconnected chloroplast that occupies ~40% of the cell volume and contains starch granules.

Intriguingly, C. zofingiensis has an extremely high photoprotective capacity compared with other algae and plants. Moreover, under specific conditions, C. zofingiensis can dramatically increase the production of lipids and secondary carotenoids. This alga produces triacylglycerols (TAGs), the preferred lipid precursor for biofuel products and accumulates these lipids to very high levels. Thus, C. zofingiensis is considered one of the most promising biofuel feedstocks for commercial production. [From Roth, M. S., Cokus, S. J., Gallaher, S. D., Walter, A., Lopez, D., Erickson, E., Endelman, B., Westcott, D., Larabell, C. A., Merchant, S. S., Pellegrini, M., & Niyogi, K. K. (2017). Chromosome-level genome assembly and transcriptome of the green alga Chromochloris zofingiensis illuminates astaxanthin production. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114(21): E4296-E4305]

The experimental samples used for this species can be found in Data S3 of our supplementary data.

Sequences (15369)